Ep. 300: Truck Sales Are On FIRE Except For These Two Full-Size Trucks!

This is a very special episode of TFL Talking Trucks, because we have not two people in

the studio today, but three.

Yep.

It's three for 300, Andre.

Yes.

The Spartans.

We are the Spartans.

No, we're so far from the Spartans.

Okay, we're not the Spartans.

Did the Spartans drive trucks, Andre?

No.

No, they drove chariots.

Chariots and elephants and stuff.

Yeah.

Chariots, right?

What was the payload on a chariot?

And how much could it tow?

I don't know.

Oh my gosh.

Well, that's six horses.

So why is 300 so special, dude?

Well, this is our 300th episode.

On this episode, of course, in the studio, I have Roman, I have Mr. Truck.

We haven't seen Mr. Truck in quite a while, but we're going to be talking about some

very interesting numbers, because the sales data recently came out, and we were surprised

by what we saw in the market for pickup trucks.

I was surprised many times.

Many times?

Many times.

Roman, were you surprised?

I was shocked, Andre.

I was just surprised.

I was shocked.

Were you flabbergasted?

I was, because two of the formerly best-selling trucks have now plummeted, well, relatively

plummeted in sales, and then another segment of trucks is on fire.

So I think we're going to talk about all that, but I'm so happy to have you here, Ken.

It's great for you to join us again.

Oh, wow, yeah.

It's been way too long.

Yeah.

I was hanging out in my crib.

We should do a Cribs episode with Ken.

So, yeah, we're going to be talking about a few stories.

At the end of this episode, our friend and colleague, Nathan, he actually prepared a

message for us.

He's going to be regaling us with some fun stories from doing videos.

Unfortunately, he was unable to join us.

He's in California, but he did send in a video postcard talking about some of the most interesting

and, I'm going to say, funniest stories from his experiences in doing video reviews of

trucks.

So shall we get into it, gentlemen?

And I just wanted to bring up a case really quick.

Case is not here because he's actually dino-ing some cars and trucks right now, right?

Well, he's dino-ing the Viper.

But that's like almost a truck engine, right?

Well, it became a truck engine.

Yeah, so there's a tenuous connection there, but yes, case is dino-ing what became a truck

engine, and that video will be, of course, on altffl.com.

So Andre, let's just get right into it and start with the truck news.

Now, you've been a busy beaver because you have actually, before we do that, what have

you been up to?

Let's start with that.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Well, I put a new deck on the house.

Wow.

I did have the Ford Maverick Lobo last week.

Yeah, and what do you think?

Were you doing drifting?

Did you go?

No, I didn't even play that.

I figured I would have did, but I know, no, actually, we went to the mountains, but I had

my wife carry on Mrs. Truck, yes, sit in the back seat, and fortunately, her legs are

like flamingos.

Very thin.

Otherwise, she never, she never could have got in there, and so I kind of feel like

giving you a Lobo is like giving, I don't know, I was going to say ice to an Eskimo,

but it's the exact opposite.

It would be like giving.

Giving a chariot to a Spartan.

It just doesn't look hard.

Five foot there.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like the right truck for Mr. Truck.

No, no, I would never sit in that back seat.

No, what about the front seat, though, because Maverick's sails are on fire, by the way.

Yeah, so that.

Yeah, 120,000 trucks in the first three quarters, and actually, my wife's grandfather, who's

97, just bought a Maverick.

Really?

Well, there are.

97 years old.

You can see them all over the road.

Oh, I figured it out.

It was Cole's quote.

Cole, this is your quote.

Giving fish hooks to fish.

Yes.

That's what it's like giving a Maverick to Mr. Truck, because let's face it, Ken, you're

a big truck guy.

Well, yeah, but it was, yeah, it's a little truck, but.

It's also a sport truck.

Yes, I was, I liked the wheels on it.

Okay, good.

And that turbo, it actually had some soup, but, you know, I had the first one that came

out and it was a hybrid, which I really liked.

I took that to Vegas and at 80 miles an hour, I was getting 50 miles to the gallon.

I love that hybrid.

That's the beauty of it.

Yeah.

This one's the gas, no hybrid and it's all a little drive and all that stuff.

But yeah, there's a bunch of little things on it that dream me nuts.

But anyway, you know what driving us about the Lobo, I like the Lobo.

Okay, I think Ford is trying, they're kind of trying to talk to enthusiasts or coming

out with these interesting vehicles, not just the Lobo, but a lot of their different categories.

But the problem with the Lobo is as a sport truck, which is what it is as a drift truck,

it's actually no quicker than a regular and not more powerful.

What's the point of coming out of the sport truck and making it as powerful as the hybrid

or as powerful as the non-hybrid, right?

That's kind of, that's kind of silly.

What's the value there?

I guess, I guess if you want to look cool.

Yeah.

I suppose maybe the teenage market.

The one I had was $42,000.

It's also expensive.

Yeah.

Very expensive.

Yeah.

The first one came out 19,000.

Now that was impressive, but 42,000 is like a full size pickup.

Here we see K's drifting a Maverick Lobo in California at the event.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

So we also have some experience with it.

Same color I had.

You will make me buy that if they stuck a supercharger on it.

Get rid of the turbo, stick a big old supercharger on it.

How about the Coyote V8?

Side pipes?

I'm not going to get a coyote in that thing.

How about side pipes?

You could just do a small supercharger, side pipes, maybe a spoiler on the back.

Now you got something instead of a truck that has the exact same powertrain than every other

Maverick.

Now, having said that, I love the Maverick.

We own one, as you know.

We own the WellWheel Drive Hybrid, and I drove that as my daily truck for like six months.

Really was sad to see it go because it's such a useful little thing.

When my mom passed away, I had to clean out her condominium, and I did like 40 trips

to, it's amazing how much stuff you collect over a lifetime, 40 trips to the Salvation

Army, donating all her stuff, and that truck was perfect.

The liftover was easy, so it wasn't hard to get stuff into.

Okay, I had to do a lot more trips because of course the bed is small.

Yeah, it's like a wheel borrow.

But you know what?

It's good enough for doing multiple trips, and because it gets such fuel economy, like

you said, we're getting like, what, over 40, right, MPG with that thing.

Plus we had the WellWheel Drive for in Colorado, which is good, and I liked the color combination.

ours was the Eruption Green, which is this like dark green, and we actually had it paired

to like this blue interior, which seems like a Lamborghini color combination, right, where

you're taking green and blue, they don't go together, but I kind of liked it.

It was kind of quirky and fun.

It was a fun truck.

What I liked the best about it was it had a radio.

The first one I had, you'd get a, I, what, the odd radios, carplay?

No, the first one didn't.

You could do that carplay or the Spotify.

Are you saying it didn't have FM and AM, is that what you're saying?

No, it didn't have anything.

They gave you a Spotify to plug into it, to listen to Spotify.

It didn't have a radio.

You talking about the concept one?

It was 19,000 in the room.

Oh, the 19,000 in the radio?

No, no.

Really?

Yeah.

That was a bargain, huh?

Oh, we also didn't have cruise control.

Remember this?

Yeah.

The original Maverick didn't have cruise control.

Yeah, this has adaptive cruise control and lane departure and all that.

Hey, I gotta talk about that.

You know, Tesla is now coming out.

And I know I went way left here, guys, as truck guys, we don't care, but what?

But I'll bring it back.

Trust me.

I'll bring it back.

Okay.

Hold on.

We'll bring this back.

So Tesla now just came out with the cheapest Tesla you could buy.

And what they basically did was they decontented a Model Y so that it doesn't have full self-driving.

I just never think as a strategy that works.

Whether it's a truck or a car, I don't like it when manufacturers decide that the way to build a cheap vehicle is to take an already existing vehicle and just strip all the stuff that people want out of it.

I just think that's a really silly marketing maneuver.

What do you guys think?

Discuss among yourselves.

That's the demographics of it.

They figured that that series of people will buy it no matter what they do, do it now like a truck.

Yeah, a lot of XL's or base models or work trucks all sell that crazy for a lot of people.

But they're not decontented.

They just, they maybe don't have bigger wheels.

Maybe they don't have the nicer interior, but you still get a radio with them.

Well, my Chevy Colorado didn't have cruise control.

Yes, well, that was your fault.

Well, we won't hammer that one down.

You didn't check the right box, Andre.

You did the decontenting there.

I would buy a Tesla if it had crank windows.

You know, if I had to go like this and my Tesla and crank it down.

Well, let me bring it back.

Okay, because I promise to bring it back to trucks.

Yes.

As you know, guys, the slate is coming and that's basically a decontented truck, right?

It's going to be a truck that doesn't have any of the usual stuff the trucks have.

Do you think that that will sell?

I don't think it will sell well because it's a two door.

I don't think the content.

It's a number of doors.

Yeah, because the most popular trucks, even the Maverick has four doors.

What do you think, Mr. Truck?

Who makes Slate?

Slate.

Slate makes her own truck.

Yeah, that's a new company.

It's a company that's partially backed by Jeff Bezos.

So people are taking it seriously because of course Jeff has a lot.

There's a lot of money behind it.

Yeah.

So what do you think?

I mean, it's a kind of a miniature little thing.

It's all electric, of course, but you can basically up content that as much as you want.

So one of the selling points of this is it just comes across.

You can also turn it into a little SUV.

It comes with basically nothing and then you could take those panels and you could swap them out.

You could add, but look, also all the panels have bolts and screws on the outside.

So you can take the panels off.

You can replace them.

You can change the color.

It's kind of like a smart car in the past.

Almost like a Lego brick.

Is it bigger than a Maverick or smaller than a Maverick?

It's a little smaller.

Wow.

It's a compact, compact truck.

Yeah.

That's your thing?

No, that's a go-kart.

All right, there you have it.

Mr. Truck has spoken.

Jeff, the upcoming Slate is a go-kart.

Take you to the bank.

You'll see it on golf courts and that's it.

All right, so let's kind of bring it.

You can see there.

You can see there's no radio.

Yeah, there is a phone.

You could put a phone in there.

Wow.

See?

Yeah.

How about if that was $25,000?

Would you pay for that?

It's supposed to be $27,500.

Starting.

No, there's too many other things you can buy for that.

Okay.

There you go.

Okay.

Like a Ford Fiesta, if you could still buy one.

In Europe, maybe.

You could buy one in Europe.

All right, keep going.

So let's kind of turn to full-size trucks, coal.

So if you go to tfltruck.com, so what happened recently,

the third quarter of sales closed in September.

So we usually look at that pretty closely

because we kind of like to judge who's doing really well in sales,

who's not doing so well, and trying to figure out

why all of this is happening.

So we should look at full-size trucks first, right?

Yeah, that's where the kind of the surprise came in.

So two full-size trucks, in other words, half tons,

really kind of fell off the sales map.

And when I say fell off, it's more than 10%,

which in a segment where manufacturers fight for a half a percent

to lose 11% of sales is pretty big.

So you want to break the news which truck lost sales?

Yes, so the truck that specifically lost sales,

and Cole also has that here, is Ram Heavy Duty.

So Ram Heavy Duty recently had a refresh,

a little bit of new style, a new commons engine,

a new transmission.

They lost 11% in the third quarter.

And I mean, partially it could be because it's a new truck coming on.

So that's a full-size truck, so it's an HD truck.

I thought we were talking full-size, so that's my mistake, guys, sorry.

Well, there's also another one full-size.

They're both full-size.

Full-size is a three-quarter ton.

But you know, those rascals, that's probably what it is,

because it's the end of the year, and they're coming out with a new one,

everybody knows they're coming out with a new one,

but are they going to do a classic like they did before on their other ones?

Sorry, HD is three-quarter ton.

I'm confused.

So I literally thought that Ram was the 1,500, not the 2,500.

So Ram, if you can see the data.

So finally, Ram has separated their Light Duty 1,500 trucks full-size

from the Heavy Duty sales.

So we have a little bit more specific data.

GM is also doing that.

They're separating their Heavy Duties from their full-size.

Ford is not.

So Ford is kind of...

That's Ford.

It's like GM separates, Ford separates GM's trucks,

and it always goes against one of them.

But you put them together, and they always beat Ford.

It's ridiculous.

And that's why Ford would include every truck they had,

including the 450, if they could put it on that number,

that's what they do.

That's marketing.

Yeah, that's what they do.

Exactly.

Well, everybody wants to say,

I have the best-selling truck in the world.

Sure.

So Ford says it for the F-Series as the name of truck.

But if you look at our page here,

when you put Chevrolet and GMC together,

like you were saying, they outsell the Ford.

All right, so let's go back to the numbers.

So the brand-new Ram...

Heavy Duty.

HD 2500 with the Cummins is down 11%.

And 3500, yes.

Altar included.

So is that because of supply constraints,

or is that because of switching over from the old truck

to the new truck,

or is that just because people aren't buying it?

So I think switchover is part of it.

Yeah.

Also, it's built in Mexico.

Every Ram Heavy Duty...

So it has the tariffs, or doesn't it?

Yeah, so it has a little bit of a tariff issue,

I'm thinking as well,

because pricing is very competitive still.

So if you look at competitive GM Heavy Duty versus Ram,

or the Ford Super Duty versus Ram.

I'm going to turn the light on.

It feels dark in here.

Hold on.

What light?

So...

Well, you know though too,

that has that new transmission,

and I thought people would be excited to go from a 6 to an 8

in a different style,

and I thought the commercial guys would still go nuts over it.

Of course, does that mean that the commercial side of the world

is slowing down, house building, road construction,

something's going on, because they buy a lot of dodges.

Or rams.

Or rams, I mean.

They changed their name.

We're showing our age, unfortunately.

So that's interesting.

I'm surprised, because the construction guys,

they have a whole different world,

because you know, you hardly see rebates on Heavy Duty,

so they're always on a half-done.

So they're used to paying a lot more money,

but why in the world would they drop off like that?

There's a conspiracy going on here somewhere.

But there's another full-size truck that's done on sales.

Oh, yes.

There is another one.

There's another one.

How much?

It's not a surprise.

It's down 7.9% in the last quarter compared to previous year,

and it's the Toyota Tundra.

People hate that truck.

Watch this town is.

Why?

For a lot of reasons.

The gas tanks on the wrong side.

A lot of things are wrong about that truck.

No, but the filler is on the right, on the correct side.

Yeah, I know, but the dash and head problems,

all the big screens have problems,

and people, when that came out,

we're all looking for the old truck trying to get that V8.

I think Toyota has,

I think you put your finger on it, Kent.

I think Toyota has an engine issue,

and it's not just with the,

well, I shouldn't say that

because the coma is selling really well,

but I think especially in the half-ton,

people value V8s,

and when they went to the,

even though Ford did it a long time ago,

when they went to the hybrid six-cylinder,

people just missed that old V8,

because that old V8 was bulletproof,

and the new Tundra has had,

as we know, engine issues.

I think that's also hurting them.

There was a recall for 100,000 of them.

I think that has probably shaken the bulletproof nature

of Toyota's to its core,

and I think that may be a reflection of that,

or it could just be that, you know,

where are they built?

Those are built in San Antonio, right?

Yeah, all Tundras and Sequoias are built in Texas.

That's not a bad thing, but...

No, it's not.

So they shouldn't be hit by terrorists,

but that doesn't mean they're not going to hit by terrorists

because the parts could be coming from Mexico.

Yeah, but I think what's the difference

between Tundra and all the other big three,

Ram, GM, and Ford,

is that those big three have a lot of engine options.

Exactly, that's what I'm saying.

Many, many engine options, right?

Yeah, Toyota has nothing.

You have one transmission and one engine.

Well, they have a hybrid version of one.

Well, yeah.

Right, so they do have a little bit of choice,

but, you know, you can get two different V6s from Ford.

You can get a V8.

You can get a supercharged V8 in a Raptor R, right?

So they have...

And you have a diesel engine and a light duty, a GM,

three liter Duramax, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And I think Toyota may be struggling with this,

not enough choice for some of their cars.

Right, that takes clear out of the commercial market

because they want a lot more stuff

than what Toyota's offering them.

Yeah, so that might be an issue.

Can you go through the numbers

for the other full-size trucks?

I'm not talking about heavy duties.

I'm talking about the F-150.

The Silverado.

We don't have the F-150 numbers

because I don't separate them.

How about Silverado?

Same problem?

They keep...

They put together with the...

No, no.

So GM has separated their heavy duty sales

from the light duty.

Tom is...

People watching this can see this,

but if you're listening to it, you can't.

Yeah, and I don't want to read the spreadsheet

on this podcast,

but what I do really want to point out

is that if you combine all full-size

and heavy duty pickup truck sales,

they were up overall by 3.7%.

Yeah.

So when people...

Some people are saying,

oh, the economy is declining.

It's not doing so well.

But if we look at, actually,

at the diesel and gasoline sales,

they're up significantly.

That's interesting.

I'm surprised it was.

Well, we know that the Titan isn't up.

It's down to 97%.

Remember the Titans?

I remember the Titans.

Remember the Titans?

Yeah.

Well, the Titans discontinued.

Yeah.

I bet you there's still something

I'll do a lot somewhere.

Some dealer has a Titan or two

hiding in the back of the garage

where you can potentially buy.

You know how that is.

Even when a car is discontinued or a truck,

there's always some that gets sold

like a couple of years after.

Oh, yeah.

They sold...

They sold 220 or 120.

They sold 118 Titans last quarter.

I figured, yeah.

So they found them.

They found something.

And all of them are in Nashville.

Have you been to Nashville?

Yeah, I have.

Have you seen how many Titans

are running around Nashville?

They gave them way free, I think.

Yeah, because that's where

Nissan is.

Was that where NATDA was?

Yeah.

In Nashville.

Yeah.

She just went to the trailer show

and accessory show.

Let's talk about that.

Let's segue that.

Let's switch gears a little bit.

So you went...

What does NATDA stand for?

North American Trader Dealer Association.

Okay.

So you went to Nashville.

Tell me about it.

What was there?

Traders and traders.

The whole rule.

It's a big convention center.

Yeah.

It had, I don't know,

thousands of traders.

It was unbelievable

and then it had a few small booths.

But everybody wants these big traders.

The traders are getting bigger

and bigger and bigger.

I mean, all of them.

Dump traders, flatbeds.

And they're using some really cool

stuff out there for the accessory world.

One guy out there

and they had him in a hallway

because he was new.

But it had, he has invented

a receiver hitching one.

Stuck it in your truck

and it's power

and it's electric.

It goes up and down.

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So instead of like an air suspension

helping you,

it's an actual device on the hitch

that can lift it up.

So all those old people

will love that

because we don't have to go through

and crank the jack or anything.

But in two,

you can leave the jack on the ground.

It goes underneath it

and lifts it up.

So you never have to move the jack

up and down.

You just drop it off.

Was that hitch pretty heavy?

No.

It was like 80 pounds,

which is solid metal.

Every piece of that

I want to see you lift 80 pounds

over your head.

Yeah.

I used to lift 300 pounds

when I was your age.

But no.

No.

But that,

and they had that other guy

actually cool there.

It has a jack.

It's a Trader Jack

with your drill.

And it's got gears in it.

And so yeah,

that one will sell that crazy.

They sent me once,

so I'm going to put it on my Trader

and see what it's like.

But yeah,

it's different.

What kills me about that,

I think they use Ford's marketing team

because every year they tell you

it's bigger no matter what.

It's bigger.

It's more sales and more stuff.

And I don't think it was.

Did you see any like consolidation

where there are fewer conglomerate

companies that own a lot of trailers

or was there still kind of like

small manufacturers coming in?

Did you see anything like that?

Yeah, there are big companies there.

But two,

a couple of companies now

are going to Mexico

to build their horse traders.

Which you know,

that's a controversy over that.

PJ went over there

with her flatbeds and all that.

But yeah,

two of them,

one of them sells them in Colorado

and they go to Mexico

and it's like a composite trailer.

But why would he go there

with the tariffs that high

and nobody knows what's going on.

And you know.

Are you seeing more bumper pull

or fifth wheel

or goose neck?

What do you think it's going?

Goose necks.

Yeah, goose neck.

Yeah, just like me

when I was a kid,

I had a bumper pull.

I was so happy

when I got my first goose neck.

They back up easier.

They tow easier

and it's a better deal.

Then it's better on your truck.

But they're also more expensive.

Well, yeah.

You know,

you don't see a lot of tundras

with goose neck trailers on them.

No.

Maybe that's an issue.

I've seen a lot of half tundra

with goose neck trailers.

I've seen a few of them.

They do make RVs

just for that market.

But anyway,

yeah,

it was interesting.

But what kills me is

a day and a half thing.

I did 10 videos

in a day and a half.

It's just like running.

I don't run,

but anyway.

Well, it's interesting

because other shows

are kind of declining, right Roman?

Yeah.

But there's still

a couple of trailer

association shows a year.

Yeah.

And it's interesting

that you saw a lot of action there.

Yeah,

they're standing about the same.

That's a lot of people.

That's the only place

they can sell trailers

or get new dealers.

Well,

it's all about getting new dealers.

So they go there

to show off their stuff

and try to sign more people up.

And all the accessory people

go there

and sign more people up

like SEMA

so that they're taking over

the market.

When you got

companies selling

with 10,000 salespeople,

maybe everybody else

can't sell anything.

But anyway,

that's my story.

Anything really cool there

that stuck out besides

the self-raising hitch?

Which is really heavy.

That was awesome.

Much heavier than waysafe.

80 pounds.

That's not heavy.

Look at this.

We have a waysafe hitch here.

Thank you, waysafe.

I could throw it

at Cole right now.

It's so light.

Don't throw it at Cole.

It's actually being held up

by a model wooden truck.

It's that light.

And the truck is squatting

a lot on it.

So it is heavy on this little

model of a truck.

It's kind of a squatty potty.

But anything cool?

Anything cool?

Everybody's coming out

with new stuff to have to

and the ones that don't

don't sell air.

If you don't have

something new for the dealers

every year

and there's a section

of those guys

and nobody's going there.

Was there any

Overland guys or campers

or this is primarily

commercial tech stuff?

There was a few campers

and there was a few

that popped up on top

of the vehicles.

And last year

they had one

that was made out of

the C container.

And it just slides on

and it's an RV.

Yeah, it was awesome last year.

Like a shipping container.

Yeah, there's a couple

guys did that last year.

Interesting.

So Roman,

before we move on

to mid-size trucks

because that's also quite

interesting.

I just wanted to mention

that we talked about

who is winning

the full-size heavy-duty

market

and really it's GM currently.

So just to wrap up the story,

if you scroll down

a little bit,

call to the

annual sales

year to date.

So GM sold

683,000 plus trucks

in so far

over the nine months

of this year.

They were up

and Ford is number two

because we're counting GM

together, right?

Yeah, right.

Ford is number two

is 620,000 trucks.

Ford was up 12.7% too.

Yeah.

So a lot of these companies

are up.

The sales are going up.

Well, sure.

And they all,

pretty dependable vehicle

set from maybe Toyota.

But, you know,

that would hurt Ford back

when they had the 6.0.

That thing, you know,

had all those problems

and Ford lost so much business.

The power stroke.

Yeah.

And all the,

they all went to

Dodge's basically

and a few Chevy's.

But you didn't see

hardly see a Ford

at a horse show

in a long time.

So that's all past them.

So they're all kind of

going full blast.

But look at that.

The lightning still

outsells the Hummer

by twice.

Yeah.

That makes a lot of sense

because the Hummer's

so expensive.

Very expensive.

Yeah.

Hummer's like 120,000

if I remember right.

And the lightning,

you can get the base

work truck for like

50 some thousand.

Yeah.

So it makes a lot of sense.

Yeah.

They make a work truck

lightning.

I forget.

It's the SV, right?

They rebranded it.

STX.

So they recently

brought an STX

lightning as well.

Which is a little bit

off roady as well.

So yeah.

I mean total

heavy duty

and the full size

truck sales were up

6.3%.

That's pretty great.

And also in the

third quarter,

GMC outsold Ram.

Yeah.

Which hasn't happened

in a long time.

No, that's unusual.

Ram is probably

still rethinking all that.

So Ram,

they're like,

their light duty

trucks are doing well

but their heavy duties

need to step up.

I think what's happened

with GMC, Andre,

is GMC has always

tried to position themselves

as kind of the

premium,

that's called the luxury

version of Chevy.

But I think recently

they've done a much better

job,

especially with the Denali

to position themselves

and actually not just

be marketing

but actually be real.

So we have that

GMC Canyon,

84X.

And I gotta say,

I just love the use

of colors,

the use of materials.

Before,

obviously,

if you got a GMC,

it was mainly just,

Kind of like a badge

difference, right?

But I think they finally

actually started to do things

like add some

style,

add some substance

beyond just slapping

a different logo on the truck.

Well, they used to be

that Denali was their top end

and the top end wasn't

topped very long.

And everybody else,

like two or three of them

above that,

the funny thing about that,

what's the last one called?

Denali Ultimate?

Yeah, that one is

impressed people.

So what are they going to do

when they need to go above

Ultimate?

The Ultimate Ultra?

Oh yeah,

the universal.

Mr. Universe.

Yeah,

but yeah,

and people do,

they still have that thought

that the GMCs are more luxurious.

And there is probably

a few differences

when you order them,

but they're the same truck.

Yeah, well,

I think that's my point.

I think they're no longer

as similar as they used to be.

I think that they've actually

gone up

and actually,

like with everything.

So even like the plastics are better.

Different screens.

The soft touch materials are better.

They do have different,

you know,

a different face

on the infotainment,

a different skin I would say.

And so I kind of feel like

I am getting a better truck

when I buy a GMC

because they are getting

also more expensive.

Once upon a time,

a GMC,

the differential,

right,

the Delta between Silverado

and Canyon

wasn't all that much.

But now it's growing.

Now it's growing.

I want to say that GMC AT4X

compared to a,

so this is mid-sized truck,

of course.

So the GMC Sierra,

sorry,

I meant to say Sierra before.

Now I'm saying Canyon.

This Canyon AT4X

is what,

almost $10,000 more

than the...

Yeah.

than the Chevy,

than your truck basically.

And the Colorado.

Yeah.

ZR2.

And I don't know

if I would pay that, Roman.

If you gave me a comparable,

well,

if you showed me a Colorado ZR2

and a Canyon AT4X

and there was $10,000 difference between them,

but the mechanicals are the same, right?

The locking differentials,

the engine, the transmission.

I don't think I would go for that.

You know what I'm saying?

I mean, it's a big difference.

It is a big difference.

If the difference was smaller,

let's say, I don't know,

$4,000 or $5,000.

That's where it should be.

Yeah.

I understand that.

$10,000 is a big difference.

But you know that in an alley,

the dash and all that stuff

is real aluminum.

The high country Chevy is plastic.

So there's a few small differences.

But I don't know if I care.

I drive an old Russian van.

Well, yeah.

You have no...

Well, this is the person

who forgot to take cruise control

and decontented their Colorado on their own.

Yeah.

By the way,

I want to thank Sean Duh,

who is here on live on patreon.com

slash tflcar,

which is our only Patreon page.

So thank you for being here.

We have a few people,

because we're also streaming this live.

Yeah.

And of course,

this is available everywhere.

Our podcasts are available.

And also everywhere on YouTube.

I want them to know that I'm live.

So we should do it live.

There's rumors going around.

Yeah, you're far from that, Kent.

By the way,

I'm joking.

This is actually an AI version of Kent.

Yeah.

Whoa.

We managed to replicate him

from all the ikes that he ran.

Yeah.

By the way, Kent,

you look handsome.

I've got augmentations, though.

You lost some weight.

You're very handsome.

I knew a partner in the video helped,

along with Microsoft,

created an AI Mr. Truck.

Yeah.

Oh, is that why you're doing this?

You put the SD card in behind my ear.

Just thinking after we're all gone,

we could still be sitting here.

Yeah, we could be.

We might blink out once in a while.

Glitch out?

Yeah, the glitch guy.

So, Cole, let's switch gears to a midsize truck

and check it out.

Yeah, midsize trucks are red hot.

Red hot.

Yeah.

If you thought full size trucks were hot,

the midsize trucks are hotter.

That's true, but the Tacoma at $73,000

still isn't getting there

in the regular halftones, the like duties.

But yeah, in that class,

which is more affordable than the other ones,

and a lot of family,

that's all they need.

They don't need a big work truck

or anything that large,

but it all depends about traders.

Now, what's the towing capacity on these Tacomas?

Is it 5,000?

So, a lot of them are 6,

6,400 pounds.

See, that's a nice size boat.

Yeah, as soon as you get a little bit over

6,000 pounds on the midsize truck,

I think that's doable.

All right, let me ask you this.

I have a question for you guys.

When Toyota went from the 6-cylinder

in the Tacoma to the little turbo,

everybody lost their, you know what,

everybody's like,

same thing with the 4Runner,

everybody's out there trying to search

for last year's model.

But when GM did it,

basically the same thing

with the Colorado and the Canyon,

people just yawned,

and no one seemed to care.

So, why are people so upset

about the 6-cylinder going away in a taco,

but really don't give a darn

about it going away in the Colorado

or the Canyon?

Huh.

Well, yeah, big fall.

That's interesting.

No, no, that's a really good point.

I just hear a lot of people,

like, very upset about the fact

that the taco now has a little turbo.

I don't know if people were yawning,

necessarily, in the GM space,

but I think the 3.6 they used to have,

you know, the 3.6 V6,

that GM mid-sizer used to have,

was kind of a car engine

meant for a truck.

So, I don't know

if it was a really great choice

for the previous one.

So, that's quite interesting.

But I think that in the Toyota's case,

that old V6,

specifically the old 4L,

was just known as bulletproof.

I mean, the old 4Runner,

in the previous 4Runner 2024 model,

had a five-speed automatic, right, Roman?

Yeah.

That's as old school as you can get.

All right, well, let me just run these numbers

in case you can't see them.

I'll just go through it.

So, Toyota Tacoma up 28.3%.

GM trucks actually combined her down 12.5%.

The Chevy Colorado down 14%.

The Frontier up 19%.

And outsold the Ranger.

Outsold the Ranger.

Oh, yeah, now that's wild.

Yeah, the Jeep Gladiator

is up 43%, Andre.

I almost fall off my chair when I read it.

Of course, this is by percentage and out by volume.

So, you know, 43% of a lot is a lot,

but 43% of not a lot is still not a lot.

Because the Gladiator was almost dead in the water,

but now all of a sudden 43%.

The Ridgeline is up actually down 0.1%.

And the Canyon is down 0.58%.

Total sales are up 11%, basically 12%.

So, let's talk about that.

Yeah, let's kind of chew on some of that.

Let's start with the Gladiator.

You just did a video, Andre, where you talked about,

you just had a Gladiator.

You were in Detroit.

So, what the hell is going on with the Gladiator?

So, this is an interesting thing.

So, I reached out to Jeep, corporate.

And I said, your Gladiator sales went up 43%.

What's going on here?

And they pointed, well, they gave me kind of a boilerplate answer.

Yeah, it was like three paragraphs of just PR, blah, blah, blah.

People love, you know, people have rediscovered the iconic legend.

But I think if you-

Wind in the hair, topless.

You like wind in your hair.

Yeah.

Wouldn't it be funny if they had written back in it just-

Three words, only topless pickup.

I think that's what it boils down to.

Yeah, they do say that quite often.

So, I think what happened to the Gladiator over the last couple of years

with the previous management that they used to have

is that they just kept increasing the price.

Remember, we did like a story two years ago

where you could, a Jeep Gladiator Special Edition was $72,000.

Yeah, I was at Moab and I drove the, what was it?

It was like a Rubicon X.

It wasn't a Rubicon, it was the Mojave.

Oh, Mojave X.

So, it was 70, I think it was like $76,000.

Oh, my God.

Again, because it's a Mojave, it's a desert runner.

They took out the front diff lock.

I know.

So, it was the content.

Yes, yes.

And it was like $76,000.

And I saw that when Roni and I fell off my chair.

I was like, you're joking, $70,000 plus thousand dollars.

For a V6.

Basic truck.

Which is more money than the Rubicon without the locker.

There were some other things.

It had like different bump stops on it, but who cares?

Yeah.

So, I think that was happening.

The sales of the Gladiator were going down because people couldn't stomach, I think,

some of those prices.

But now, they pointed down to value.

So, they bring the price down.

So, Cole, if you can open a different tab, I have that orange Gladiator that we did.

It's on the website as well.

That one, the Willys edition, that started at $45,000.

This is the one they lent, Jeep lent you when you were recently destroyed.

Yeah, I was.

So, let's hear this.

What do you think about that orange color, by the way?

Orange is a new red.

Well, if I'm hunting deer or something.

Red is a new, just in time for, look, we have an orange GMC.

iPhones are orange.

Orange and dark green are the two hot colors of the year.

Yeah.

Everybody loves orange today.

Yes.

So, that is very orange, though.

GMC is like a pumpkin, right?

That is orange.

Yeah.

It's good for if you're in the construction company, right?

So, this one started at $45,000.

It had several options, like the tunnel cover, the bed liner.

Gosh, it had like heated seats and heated steering wheel.

You know, fleet sales are going to love this guy.

Yeah, yeah.

The construction truck.

Willys is cool, though.

I'm glad they brought the name back in there.

That's a neat name.

So, by the way, I'm wearing the same thing.

You are.

Can you see that?

Have you been wearing that for like four days, that shirt?

I love it.

Good series.

I love flannel shirts.

Yeah, I had one yesterday.

So, is it any different on the inside?

Does it feel cheaper or is it the same?

No, no.

Look at this.

It felt good.

Cole was with me at this event.

Yeah, it's got the big screen.

Yeah, it's got all the good switches.

Rear locking differential, auxiliary switches.

So, how much is a tow?

It tows $6,000.

So, maybe, yeah, it's okay.

So, I think that's why.

I think they're coming back to value proposition,

and I think people are noticing their value.

Yeah, usually, Ram and Jeep have a great market.

You know, they should just stick a hemmy in it.

Why not?

They're doing it.

Yeah, Stalatis is sticking hemmies to everything.

Put a hemmy in here.

You know, the problem with this, let's face it,

the problem with the Pentastar,

I shouldn't say it's a problem,

because the Pentastar is a great engine.

It's been around forever.

And it's reliable.

I say, Andre, I make a prediction.

I will make a prediction right here.

Remember the old four liter in the Jeep

that everybody thinks is one of the greatest

American engines ever designed?

Straight 6'4".

Exactly, yeah.

I think the Pentastar will have that similar reputation

like 10 years from now.

Because they put it in everything, right?

It's everything from minivans to chargers to challengers

to gladiators.

It's a really good powertrain,

but it would be better with a hemmy.

I think so.

Yeah, all those ones from Jeeps from World War II

had that four-banger,

and you cannot wear them out.

They never used oil.

The original, like, hurricane engines.

Look, there's no...

Okay, the cafe regulations are still there,

but the current administration got rid of any penalties.

So I say, look, you did it with the Wrangler, right?

The 392.

Yeah.

So why don't you stick that engine in here?

Why not a smaller hemmy, a 5.7?

Any hemmy.

No, I'm talking about just...

If you could fit it in the regular Wrangler,

why can't you slap it in here?

You should be able to.

It's the same.

I mean, it's the same, right?

For a long...

This is funny, Ken.

For a long time, Jeep tried to pull the wool over our eyes,

and they kept saying that the Gladiator is not a Wrangler with a bed.

But it is obviously a Wrangler with a bed.

Yeah, yeah.

And then, like, a year ago at the Easter Jeep Safari,

Jeep came out and they said,

oh, by the way, it's a Wrangler with a bed.

We were like, yeah, we all knew that.

But why not stick a 392 Gladiator?

I would buy that.

Because it would be $90,000.

No, I wouldn't.

I want a small V8.

I want a 5.7.

No, no, that's too much engineering.

You've already engineered for the 392.

Put it in the Gladiator and make it a baby TRX.

How about that?

Cole, come on, baby TRX.

How cool is that?

Cole is shaking his head, yes.

Look, of course, the Ranger has the Raptor.

So now you have a competitor, right?

And the Raptor Ranger, how many cylinders?

Six.

And what's better than six?

Eight.

Exactly.

This is not hard.

Jeep, this is not hard.

This is simple math.

Add two more cylinders.

Add $20,000 more, right?

$10,000 a cylinder.

I think people would stop like that.

And I will raise my hand.

I'm raising my hand.

As TFL, if you put the big engine in the Gladiator, we will purchase it.

We will be the first.

I will fly, like the TRX, when we're the first, I will happily fly to the factory.

Where are the Gladiators made?

Toledo, Ohio.

Here we come.

We will fly.

We're coming.

We will fly there.

We will pick it up and drive it across country.

Poor Cole always is stuck with these road trips.

Leave me and Andre and we'll put Cole in the back.

Well, then you can be the same with Toyota and put a V8 in that.

I'm not joking.

I think I came up with this idea kind of on a fluke, but I think it's a hell of a good

idea.

Somebody at Jeep should be thinking about this.

I think they are.

I mean, the TRX is coming back, the Rem TRX is coming back with a Hellcat engine.

Why not V8 everything?

V8 everything.

Well, people got used to it.

Actually, what was the name of that big, big bank robber?

John Somebody.

Do you think?

He wrote for the letter.

This is so random, dude.

Why do you call him the bank robber?

It's related because you say everybody likes to V8.

What was his name?

John Something.

He wrote for the letter.

John Mones Booth?

No.

But he told Ford, he congratulated Ford on that V8 because he could rob banks faster.

Everybody likes to V8.

Everybody.

Well, Roman, Mr. Truck switched from a V6 to a V8.

Yes, I did.

Here's the problem.

Tim's probably listening to this.

Excuse me?

Tim's probably listening to that.

Which Tim?

Tim, Tim.

Caniscus?

Yeah.

Caniscus is probably listening to this.

And he's thinking to himself, now that Roman has come up with this idea, I'm going to

take it and put it in the RAM midsize truck, which we know is coming.

V8 Dakota?

Exactly.

And steal it from Jeep.

So all you Jeep people, oh, Clyde used to V8?

No, it was the other guy, John.

Something.

He got shot in the theater, sort of.

Now we're really dating her.

So this is like 1920 or something.

Oh my God.

It's still Ford appreciates somebody liking his truck as a V8.

No, it was Clyde Barrow.

No, it was another one.

John, some guy shot in the theater.

So Caniscus is thinking, I'm going to steal that idea.

So Jeep, if you're listening, slam that 392 in the gladiator before Caniscus can take

it for RAM.

And you're going to have people lining up.

Make some hay.

Hey, in the comments below, if you're listening to this or watching it, let us know if you

would buy a 392 gladiator.

Yes.

And you figure it wouldn't be hard to do.

It wouldn't be hard.

You might have to do a little bit.

You're right.

It already exists in the Jeep.

And imagine how much that bad boy would tell.

I don't know if people would care.

I don't think he would care.

Yeah.

I think it's the sound of it, the performance of it, the off-road ability of it.

Yeah.

And Ford with the Raptor Ranger would be left out in the cold.

There you go.

And then GMC's got the, what is it, the top dog?

It's called...

Well, they have AV and Bison.

The AV edition, right?

And Bison.

Yeah.

So they have the AV edition.

But that still only has that little turbo four-cylinder.

Yeah.

And it's not anymore powerful.

Yeah.

And it's rolling on 35s, right?

You could roll 35s on it.

Can you get a gladiator with 35s at factory?

Not right now.

Why not?

Exactly, Jeep.

Why not?

This is so easy.

This is so freaking easy.

You've already done all the engine.

I remember when the 302 came out and we were talking with the chief engineers and they

were like, you know, this was not easy.

Shoe-horning this big V8 under the hood of a Wrangler.

But they did it.

But they did.

Yeah.

Because they had to move all sorts of suspension pieces.

They had to shift the, you know, the chassis membrane, the chassis struts around.

Crossmember, sorry.

They had to shift the crossmember around because it was a much bigger engine.

They've done all that work.

So now just do it.

Do it.

Just do it.

I think I'm stealing that.

Thank you.

It's pretty simple.

I have beaten that horse to death.

So let's keep going.

We're good.

Yeah.

Let's keep going.

What the hell is happening with Frontier?

Why is Frontier selling?

Yeah.

Why is Frontier through the roof?

Well, they must be cheap because, you know, that they redesigned that truck and the sales

were taken off for a couple of years, but then it kind of backed off.

I think they probably ran really aggressive pricing.

I think you're absolutely right.

Roman, I was just on the Nissan side.

Their Frontier starts at $32,000, which is not the lowest maybe.

Two-wheel drive?

Yeah, two-wheel drive.

No Pro-X.

No, no.

But still, you know, I think Nissan can do this.

They have the best value.

If you look at the top dog Frontier Pro-X right now, it's about what?

Low 50, like $51,000.

If you compare it to the hybrid Tacoma TRD Pro, that's like dude, $65,000, right?

That's a big difference.

Well, yeah.

And, you know, the last model they had that they kept forever, that was all about value.

You can buy them so cheap.

And so they sold the crap out of them.

They had good numbers.

It also could be that they're picking up sales from Tacoma because people want that

six-cylinder as opposed to the little turbo four.

You think that could be it?

It could be because Frontier still has the V6, which is kind of traditional engine.

But GM, I think they had a shortage on some of the components.

I don't remember exactly how it affected them, but they are down, unfortunately, in sales

for General Motors.

But Tacoma, what is happening?

Why is it up 28 percent?

I don't know.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Well, that is a nice truck.

It's got power seats are off the ground.

There's so many things I like about that truck that they...

Oh, yeah, the red isodynamic seats that cradle you?

Yeah, but they're also off the ground.

You don't have to lay on the floor anymore.

Yeah.

Hey, I have a suggestion for Nissan.

You know how they're struggling right now and they just cut costs?

Yeah.

You know how they have the Pro 4X?

Pro double X?

No, just get rid of the X.

That way you save on printing costs.

Just go Pro X.

Isn't that cooler?

Pro X as opposed to Pro 4X?

I think just Pro X.

There's something more like poetic about that.

And that way you don't have to put X's on all over all of your thousands of trucks

and you can save a little bit of money.

Just Pro X.

I think they should put a V8...

How about PX?

You could save more with PX.

No, I don't like that.

I think you have to eat it.

Or how about just X?

Then you're like musk.

Everything is X.

I like simple X, but I think V8, Roman, is the answer.

In the frontier?

They don't have a V8?

Not anymore.

Unless you take the others, not even in any of their trucks.

Well, because they had the beautiful 5.6 V8 and the Titan.

And then they killed it.

Well, they could bring it back like the Hemi.

I guess they could.

Yeah, but that was a thirsty engine.

Thirsty engine.

Let's talk about that, by the way.

This is something...

This is another hot take, okay?

And you're going to hate this, Kemp.

I'm going to throw it out there.

I'm going to say...

And we own V8 trucks, and I love V8s,

so let me preface it by that.

But there's a reason that the Hemi went away

and that the Coyote is not the best-selling truck

in Ford's lineup.

And that is because these V8s,

as much as people love V8s in their pickup trucks,

are less powerful and are more thirsty

than the twin-turbo V6 equivalent of that.

And I've seen that in our Coyote.

When we've been towing, Andre, you have to admit it.

The twin-turbo EcoBoost in the Ford F-150

is a much better towing rig than the Coyote.

I say yes in the mountain.

That depends on your actual ratio.

Twin turbos?

Yeah.

Twin turbos in the mountains.

Nothing beats twin turbos.

Apple's in Apple 3.73 to 3.73.

Well, like I've had them.

I've had that last one, and it blew up at 150,000 miles.

Cam phasers three times.

You just made my point, Kemp.

Yeah, but that's on the V6.

It was on the Coyote.

Oh, it was the V6?

That's why I have a Coyote now, yes.

Wait, how many miles did it blow up at?

Oh, 130.

Well, that was the third time it blew up.

Three cam phasers three different times.

Oh, now Mike's still listening to this.

You're going to get a phone call.

If you look at them, Ford didn't push the V8.

They hardly even talk about it.

They pushed that V6 forever.

You know, in your study ads about the V8,

and that's how they did it.

It's how they marketed.

They wanted to sell more of those,

and that somehow was what they wanted to do.

You go to the car lots, you don't see a V8 on the M.

I had to wait for mine.

So I don't know.

I think it's...

So why are they doing that?

Why are they pushing the six?

I don't think they made more money about the V6, probably.

It's probably more complicated.

Well, yeah.

You know, they've got two turbos, right?

You've got a lot more cooling.

But that torque is intoxicating.

But your point is why I made my decision in 2018

and got that V6,

everything was higher.

Towing everything.

So that's why I picked it then.

But now, the fuel mileage, actually,

I'm one mile down higher than what the 3.6 is.

Yeah, I agree.

So they're getting better on the V8.

Goodness gracious.

Roman, our F-150 Tremor is really good on fuel, actually.

It's good on fuel when you're not towing.

Exactly.

When you're towing, they're both pretty bad.

Good-bye, yeah.

Nothing is good.

That's how they are.

Yeah, they're both pretty bad.

I think towing.

But I specifically bring this up because everybody's like,

we want the Hemi back, and let's face it,

the Hemi is just a great marketing name, right?

It's just a hemispherical chamber.

It's a great name.

Since Troy was putting these things into the 2CV

back in the 30s, all right?

There's no magic in a Hemi except for the fact that everybody...

Tatra used to do it, too.

Yeah, Tatra.

Our old Tatra had a Hemi, too.

This is old technology, but it's great marketing.

And so people are like, hey, I got a Hemi.

Remember those commercials?

You should remember those.

This is all up your street.

Remember those commercials?

Oh, I know.

That's what sells, what they advertise.

You remember when the guy pulls up and he goes,

I got a Hemi.

You remember those?

They got a Hemi.

Yeah, they got a Hemi.

Remember those?

Yeah.

All right, anyway.

But they had them in farm trucks.

They had them in everything.

Anyway, let's just compare numbers, all right?

So how much horsepower in the Hemi, Andre?

395.

How much in the hurricane?

420.

How much in the hurricane in the RHO?

But 540.

Exactly.

Need I say more?

But I think the story is also in the torque, right?

The V8 engine makes decent torque, 410 pound-feet, right?

But you have to spool up the engine, right?

The engine has to be like 4,000 rpm or more in a V8.

You really think the V6 is lower?

Yeah, maximum torque in the twin-turbo engines is around 2,500 rpm.

So the torque comes in much sooner.

You could climb the mountain with a trailer in a turbocharged engine

way easier with lower rpm, right?

Than any V8 engine.

That's a turbo, though.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think it's intoxicating because you feel like

you have so much power in a turbocharged engine.

And the V8 is just nostalgia, right?

But both, RAM, GM, all of them now offer V8.

And here's the other question.

Why can't I hear the V8 in our F-150?

It's so quiet.

It is so quiet, even when towing, that I'm like, I don't know what.

If you close my eyes and you put me in that truck

and you told me to floor it, I would not believe that that's a V8.

It's so quiet.

Why aren't they making it more like a throaty?

That's old farts like that.

That's your fault.

That's nice.

Yeah, it's a little different.

Is yours quiet, too?

Yeah, it's very quiet.

Yeah, too quiet.

Too damn quiet.

But you know, yeah, Ruben keeps wanting me to put some pipes on it.

But you know, the thing with it is...

Straight pipe it.

Come on.

Yeah, the V8, that one has been so dependable.

I mean, look at the way people race.

They buy that engine.

People love that engine.

They can build it from the top up.

That's a famous engine for years.

The five-liter?

Yeah, the five-liter.

The one thing I will say, and I think this is true.

Unlike Hemi, Ford has improved and continuously developed the Coyote.

So today's Coyote is not the same Coyote that was in a truck from 10 years ago.

And they're still solid engines, you know?

Yeah, I'm not saying it's good.

They keep developing it.

They keep re-updating it.

In the Mustang, you can do a throttle bodies with the same engine.

Of course, that's another problem I have.

Why is it 480 horsepower in the Mustang and only 400 in the truck?

Or 400 in the truck?

Probably longevity?

You know, they're trying...

They're tuned differently.

Yeah, they're tuned differently.

Yeah, if we're towing trailers, Mustang's probably not.

No, the Mustang...

That people video, by the way.

Yeah.

I thought trailer was my Mustang.

Yeah.

But you see what I'm saying?

I'm like, same engine.

Why does one have 80 horsepower less?

Why Ford?

Why?

Well, look at the heavy duties.

They rate all that low.

All right, so you're saying...

This is what you're saying.

That's the argument you're making.

You're saying...

Or this is Ford's argument.

That you're detuning it for the truck so that it lasts longer.

Right?

That's the glasses half full.

And also the torque curves are different.

But I could be the glasses half empty.

So does that mean that the Mustang will last less?

Well, it could be.

I mean, high RPMs are hard on anything.

But you know, when they do trucks, big trucks,

let's say at least a 450 or a 3500, 4500,

the way they do emissions is totally different.

So they have those lot less power.

Why don't you...

But emissions don't matter anymore.

Well, they do.

They're doing the heavy duties.

The 450 is 4500, 5500.

They don't rate them the same.

So they always lower the horsepower because they don't know what kind of thing you're

going to put on the back of those cabin chassis.

So they opt dramatically.

So people are really shocked when they go get a Hemi and then they go get a one to put

it in the shop, you know, that they're getless.

They're near the power.

So that's a big thing with the Hemi duties.

I have another hot take.

Actually, I have two more hot takes for it before we light the candles and celebrate.

Can I give you two more hot takes?

Can we talk about Maverick?

No.

I talk about Maverick.

I know.

Talk about Maverick.

You're right.

People don't want to hear my hot takes.

Talk about Maverick.

Mavericks will tow 4,000 pounds.

They used to tow it.

Yes.

It's all whipped properly.

Yeah.

It used to be 100 or 1,000 or 4,000 pounds.

Can you scroll a little bit more to the bottom for total Maverick sales?

So, Roman, just to address one of your comments, I think, so imagine the use case is different,

right?

In the Mustang, you're probably going to the drag strip and you're flooring that engine

for about 12 seconds.

Man, no one's going to the drag strip.

No, no.

Listen to my point.

You're flooring that engine for 12 seconds.

You run the quarter mile and that's kind of the sports car take.

Yeah, no one's doing that.

I don't believe it.

But in a truck, you're pulling 10,000 pounds up a mountain so that engine is working hotter

for longer periods of time.

I get that.

So I think that's why you kind of have to detune it.

But you can see what I'm saying.

First of all, we're going to go drag racing in Denver.

The drag strip is closed, which is happening not just in Denver, by the way.

It's happening everywhere.

Every streetlight.

You could race at every streetlight.

You're not going to race at them.

The only time people, another hot take.

I'm just full of hot takes today.

The only time people are actually hot racing Mustangs is when they leave cars and coffee

because every Mustang leaving their cars and coffee and stuff.

Oh, that's Santa.

Yeah?

People are drag racing.

Mustangs, yeah.

All right.

Coles has come down to Santa Fe.

She's neighborhood.

It's Coles' neighborhood.

Santa Fe.

So now that the Vandermeer is gone, they have no choice but to race.

That's true.

My wife used to live in downtown LA all night.

All night, man.

The whole night.

You're right.

Okay.

I take that back.

All right.

Go ahead.

What about the Maverick?

Is that it?

It's just selling well?

Yeah.

The sales were very high.

So Tacoma is going for like best year ever, right?

They might sell 260,000 plus.

Maverick is also heading for best, almost best year ever.

So far they sold 121,000.

Yeah.

That's very good for that truck.

Very good.

So we lost a lot of money in our Maverick, by the way.

How much did we lose?

Like $7,000.

$5,000?

$7,000?

Give or take, $7,000.

We bought it for $37,000 plus and we sold it for $31,000.

Oh, you didn't get the $19,000 one.

No, no.

You can't get that anymore.

So in like six months, we lost almost $7,000 on it.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

We put it on 10,000 miles.

I think we need to...

What percentage is that?

Wheel and deal.

What percentage?

What percent we lost?

You think we can actually wheel and deal?

Or I don't think you can wheel and deal.

I think we couldn't wheel and deal.

I think we could have sold it ourselves and now traded it back to the dealer.

Yes.

But then you don't get the tax credit.

Tax incentive.

I mean, tax benefit out of it.

But also, we usually buy trucks first.

We were the first people with a hybrid Maverick, all-wheel drive.

We were.

And that costs money.

Yeah.

Because you can't go into the dealership.

And there's the first truck ever in the state of Colorado.

Yeah, that was a good truck.

And you can't say, oh, give me $3,000 off of it.

It's just...

It's demand.

That's a very good point, Andre.

Does the Hyundai still make a truck?

Yes.

They still make the Santa Cruz.

Yes, they do.

But they're not doing so well.

Yeah.

The Hyundai Santa Cruz is down by, what, 18%?

Wow.

You know who's building a truck?

Hyundai announced.

Yeah.

Kia and Hyundai want to get into mid-sized trucks.

Yeah, they're going to build a truck.

Wow.

Buy them a frame.

Well, they don't...

You know, I go to these horse stains all the time.

And I'd had women come up to me.

Look up my truck, they want truck advice and trailer advice.

And then they would say, you know, if Honda made a duly diesel, I would buy it.

What?

Yes.

They all said that.

They love their Hondas and their Toyota's are dependable.

But they don't think the American ones aren't.

So they want us to go to China.

The Japanese don't understand why we want such huge trucks to begin with.

Well, sure.

Even the semis are small over there.

I think Toyota is probably the one that should be building an HD truck, right?

Who?

Toyota.

Because they have a mid-size, they have a full-size and they should be doing an HD truck.

I think they could compete because, at least when I talk to the manufacturers, they're always

like, the biggest goal is for people to stay within our brand.

So, let's say you're down taxes, which is where most trucks are sold, right?

25% of all trucks.

And, you know, you started out as a college kid driving into coma, and then when you got

married and you got kids, you had a little bit bigger truck to haul the family.

You got yourself a Tundra.

Yeah.

And now you got that camper, you got that horse trailer, and it weighs 15,000 pounds.

And you go to your Toyota dealership and you're like, hey, what do I do?

Yeah, they don't know.

Yeah.

And then that's when you go across the street to Ford or GM.

Yeah.

And then buy yourself an HD truck.

Yeah.

But you know.

But the Japanese, I think the corporate people in Japan look at the HD trucks and just scratch

their head.

Yeah, they saw what happened to Titan.

They saw Titan.

They were trying to get a heavier truck.

But, you know, I've seen their prototype.

They had Huno, Hino, whatever their big, they make a big truck.

Yeah, the Hino, yeah.

That was made into a duly and they were saying, this is the future Toyota heavy duty.

And they showed it at shows and I saw it somewhere.

But I think that Nissan taught them a lesson that they're not quite ready for it.

All right.

One last question before we light up the cake.

Would a Toyota heavy duty, let's say 2,500 truck sell?

Yes.

I would say yes.

I agree.

So I think it would do really well.

Yeah.

I think it would do really, really well.

I think so.

Yeah.

Yes.

All the women would buy it.

But they are.

They are.

All the cowboys.

Cowgirls.

They pull those big horse trailers.

So already.

You're right about that.

Actually, I'm making fun of you.

But you're right.

They do pull the big horse trailers.

Yeah, I am.

Exactly right.

And finally, folks, before we light candles and celebrate 300th episode.

And then, by the way, I'm getting hungry looking at this cake.

I know.

I've been smelling it in the room the whole time.

I'm getting a sugar high just sitting there.

By the way, tell about my energy.

I like.

Yeah.

How did you get that?

That's what I need.

I need that energy.

Sniffing cake.

Sniffing cake is the latest.

It's the latest and greatest.

So full-size trucks were up overall.

Mid-size trucks are up in a big way.

And now full-size SUVs are also up in a big way.

Yeah.

That's cool.

If I look at these numbers, the economy is doing pretty well because, for example, can

you go to the SUV?

It makes no sense.

Because in the news, what you're hearing is that people are taking out, oh, my gosh.

Eight-year loans on their vehicles.

I know.

And that there's more and more defaults on these loans now.

So the two are kind of.

No, we don't care about cars, Cole.

Delete cars.

Only trucks.

You know what I'm saying?

It's kind of counterintuitive.

So people are buying these very expensive, big-ass.

SUVs.

Truck-based SUVs.

Yes.

And yet, you know, auto loans are defaulting at a new rate.

Car financing companies are going out of business.

How do you square those two?

I don't know.

Because they are very expensive.

But what does that weigh in here?

It's really expensive.

Oh, it starts at like $67,000 and goes for like $100,000.

Yeah, I know.

Those other ones are out there.

Here's one last hot take before we light it up.

I hate to own with big trucks.

I mean, I shouldn't say big trucks.

Big SUV-based crossovers or SUVs.

Big truck-based SUVs.

I hate to own with them.

Why?

Oh, I love it.

I think they're great.

It was like a Suburban or something?

We just towed with the Nissan Armada and QX80 Infinity.

And it wasn't great.

Yeah, I've done the Armada before.

But did you have a weight distribution hinge?

We did.

You know that's all set up right?

No, I think the issue has to do, and this is true for all small displacement turbocharged

engines because Nissan switched to twin turbos, right?

Again, on the downhill, they don't perform quite as well.

You know, the brake applications that we count on the iGonflit, there's not enough back pressure

there because they don't have exhaust brakes on these light-duty engines.

No gas engine does.

And so I just feel like even though they're based on a truck, a lot of them are, right?

Yeah, they have a full-wide frame.

I just feel like a truck, like when the engineers get together and design a new truck, right,

they say to themselves, OK, what we need to do is have a vehicle that tows and hauls.

That's what they say to themselves.

And let's make it the best towing and hauling vehicle that we can.

When they design the Suburban or the Tahoe, they say, you know what?

We need a big-ass SUV that fits a lot of people and has a lot of room for a lot of stuff.

And then the towing and hauling kind of are secondary, and that's why I don't like towing with them.

I don't think that they're a specialty tool for that.

I think they do it, but I think the trucks are actually designed to do it and to thrive doing it

while these are kind of an afterthought.

You can use a GM, though, right?

It doesn't matter.

Well, GM has airbags in the back.

They can level themselves down.

Yeah, that's true.

It could be a navigator.

But that's a big deal for all the trailers.

It could be a navigator.

It could be any of the Ford products.

I don't care.

I just don't like towing with them.

I don't.

Sorry.

Don't enjoy it.

I love towing with trucks.

Don't enjoy towing with big-ass SUVs.

You're more of a Corvette guy.

Yeah, I got towing the Corvette.

I brought the Corvette today, Andre, so he saw me in the Corvette.

Oh, I see.

They'll put an inch on that one.

Oh.

Uh-huh.

Now, you're giving me shit.

See, he's coming back to life.

Who woke him up a little bit?

Oh, you're sniffing cake right now.

You're sniffing cake, too.

I'm hungry.

I've ate two cakes.

Well, do you like towing with these?

Seriously, do you like towing with the big SUVs?

I do.

I like bigger mirrors than what's out there.

They don't have much for towing there.

But that's my own fondry.

How about you, Andre?

Do I like towing with them?

Yeah, if you had a tow of something.

You've got to tow, let's not make it crazy, because they don't tow that much.

Let's say you've got a tow like an 8,000-pound trailer.

Would you rather have a Suburban or would you rather have a Silverado?

1,500?

Yeah.

I would prefer a pickup truck for the longer wheelbase, more stability.

I would.

Well, yeah.

Yeah, but half-times are pretty close to them.

You actually enunciated what I couldn't, so thank you.

You're welcome.

But I think there's still value in having a big SUV, right?

Well, yeah.

You could carry seven people.

Yeah.

And you could bring a trailer with you as well.

Big family, a lot of relatives.

Yeah, but see, the expedition did that because they went to independent suspension.

We never liked that because it was like an Elvis pelvis.

Because they moved too much with the trailer, really.

Elvis pelvis.

They moved too much.

But they've done a bunch of things with their computers, and now it sits still.

It used to be, you did this the whole time down the road.

I should get up and show you.

But they fixed it.

Yeah, they fixed it.

Don't show your pelvis, please.

So they fixed it.

No, but they fixed it.

She's right.

You know, the coil springs, instead of the leafs, would not be as stable, but I think

they're doing better jobs now.

Yes, they're much better.

They're doing better jobs.

I know.

They're very close to half-time.

When people get to a certain age, Kent, and I'm looking at you.

Wow.

I have gray hair.

And they retire.

Yeah.

And they're like in Texas, maybe.

And they decide that what they wanted to go do is be snowbird somewhere.

Right.

And then they go get themselves a big-ass camper.

Right?

That's what they do.

Yeah.

They get themselves a big-ass camper.

They inevitably don't get a suburban.

They don't get a Tahoe.

They don't get a navigator.

They don't get an Atlas.

They get a Denali heavy duty.

No, exactly.

They get a Class C and motorhomes what they do.

Well, that too.

But no, if it's a camper or a big-ass fifth wheel, they get a heavy duty truck.

That's what they get.

And then they get the most expensive, biggest diesel they can afford.

Right?

That's what people do.

Yeah, they do.

Yeah.

You see a lot of them.

Yeah, they have no reason for a big suburban because they don't have it.

The grandkids don't visit them.

I don't have grandkids yet.

Thank God.

I hope I'm getting close enough to the speaker.

Anyway, let's light the cake.

300 episodes, boys.

We've got to celebrate this.

And thank you guys out there for actually making this possible and for listening to us for how many years?

Andres, 300 episodes.

Well, five and a half years.

Five and a half years.

Yeah, and you've got a giant guy.

Do we have candles?

I'm looking.

It's right there.

You found it.

Thank you, Cole.

Down, left, left, left, left, left.

There it is.

Oh, you got a ladder fire.

Don't start a studio on fire.

Ladder fire.

You get to blow this out, Kent, because you've been part of this team the whole time.

I did quit smoking.

Maybe I can.

Did you?

Smoking cigars?

Yeah.

Really?

Even cigars?

Doctors said no more.

Yeah.

Well, did you miss it?

Oh, yeah.

I'm out of fuel, guys.

I'm out of fuel.

I've got one in the truck, I think.

That's a long wait.

Oh, you had it.

Don't you have, like, rocks you can rub together, Andre?

There you go.

You're listening to this at home.

Andre is diligently trying to light a three, a zero, and a zero on top of, I believe,

is that a tiramisu cake, Andre?

No, I felt a tiramisu would be too fancy for truckers.

Yeah.

So this is a tuxedo chocolate cake.

Tuxedo chocolate.

So now that I'm tailing in desserts for us, or is it eye tailing?

Well, the truckers, we like hot dogs.

Oh, Roman, the problem is your air conditioner is too powerful in this room.

Oh, no.

Andre, do it again.

One more.

Oh, anyway.

Ted, you got one more to blow up.

That's all.

Nice.

You did it.

Thank you for having me, cigars.

So now we'll hear also a message from our friend, Nathan.

Yeah, well, we munched down on, what did you call this cake?

Tuxedo cake?

Tuxedo chocolate, yes.

Well, I munched on tuxedo.

Let's roll Nathan's, and for all of you watching this on Patreon, sorry, but we can't roll

Nathan's video, but you can go altff.com or you can listen to it on all of your favorite

podcast outlets, including Spotify, Apple, and where else are we?

Goal.

Everywhere, right?

Everyone.

And then if you guys are listening to this and you want to check out more of Andre and

myself, we just did a podcast on TFL car chat where we discussed the vehicles that we

bought and own this year and gave our hot take on all the stuff that we bought this year

and what we loved about it, what we didn't.

Thank you, Andre.

You're doing a great job of cutting it, and thank you, Ken, for coming in.

And thank you, Ken, for buying the cake.

And thank you, Cole, for producing this episode.

And thank you guys for watching.

We'll see you next time.

And thank you to Kase and the rest of the team as well.

And don't forget about MrTruck.

StarOrder.MrTruck.com.

Oh, don't forget about MrTruck.

Don't forget about MrTook.

Ken, how can we forget about MrTruck?

That would be impossible.

See you next time.

Especially AI generated.

Nathan, take it away, my man.

Howdy, guys.

Yeah, it's that time.

300.

Magical number.

I'm very, very proud of the team.

I got to tell you, I'm in California, Los Angeles.

This is my own choice, by the way, moving out here.

Just in case you were wondering, family and palm trees and drinks and coconuts.

That's really cool.

Lots of these types of shirts, too.

So the reason I mentioned that is because the team at TFL, from the beginning,

have been the hardest working out there.

If you ever went to an event where we were there, hanging out,

you would see that during lunch breaks, whenever we could film,

we were out there filming and filming and filming.

So I'm a very competitive guy and I love to see that the team, TFL,

the hardest working guys out there, still are, except for me.

And with TFL Truck, Andre came in and really took the reins and made it grow

and credit to him and his super hard work.

Andre is a very hard worker and he plays hard, too.

So rather than getting into embarrassing stories, which is initially what I wanted to do,

talking about flooding vehicles or driving off cliffs or whatever.

I wanted to talk about the main team members that I've worked with

and just some fond memories that I have of them because, hey,

we've done a lot with Truck and Truck is now one of our biggest channels.

And it's thanks to you guys out there as well.

The audience, you guys have responded.

You helped us out when we were down.

You've supported us all the way through.

It's an honor to make videos for you guys.

That's half the fun, right?

So the other part of this whole thing is a couple of memories.

And I wanted to throw them at you while I have a couple of minutes,

while I'm here in Los Angeles, drinking my ties and wearing Hawaiian shirts

and having better food, no snow and palm trees.

I'm messing around.

So the first memory, it comes up a lot because it actually entailed injury

and fire, two things that happened.

It was about 10 years ago.

And so early days of TFL Truck, not the earliest, but earlier days.

And this was with Andre and Mr. Truck, you Kent.

And we went to pick up a half track, a military half track,

a vehicle that, well, frankly speaking, was extremely heavy and hard to move.

Now I'm not going to go over all the details of the video.

You guys can watch it.

It's still out there in TFL Truck.

And we used it as weight.

So for the Ike Gauntlet and we were running at the time all of these awards,

we used that as the weight on our flatbed trailer.

And it was really super cool to look at, but it was really super hard to move.

So much so that I nearly lit everybody on fire more than once.

Had to use a fire extinguisher.

That's all on video, by the way.

It's a misadventure video.

And what you didn't see in the video was that I tore my calf muscles,

jumping off it at one point when I didn't jump off it the right way.

And I was really screwed up with my leg.

That it's an irony because all the things I've had done to my foot,

this had nothing to do with it.

And boy was my wife mad.

But anyway, that was both Mr. Truck and with, of course, Andre.

And the guys were so supportive.

We did everything we could to get that thing on there.

We actually managed to do it with some ingenuity.

Fun videos to watch.

Memory I have with Roman, it's kind of a truck thing,

but it's also a car thing way back in the day.

And this is about nine years ago.

So about a year after that, I guess, roughly.

Roman went out and bought a Tatra 603.

And he bought it from his home, the Czech Republic.

So between eating weird potato things and playing a little squeeze box things

and the weird funny hats they wear, he jumped into one of these, bought it with Tommy.

And they actually drove it from the Czech Republic over to Germany,

put it on a roll on roll off, brought it to the United States.

We, TFL, the team, picked it up in the East Coast.

And getting there, just getting there was a misadventure.

And what we had was the original Raptor, which by the way, still amazing truck.

That thing was great.

And we took a trailer.

We had to go through Washington DC, all these other things getting there.

That was all a pain.

We get over to the East Coast and the whole purpose was to put this Tatra 603,

this old car that would be hard to drive across the United States.

Well, we put it onto the trailer to get it out of the area that was located at the docks.

Well, it turns out that you're only required to get it out of the trailer,

on the trailer, out of the docks.

And that's it.

Once you're done, do whatever.

So we took it off the trailer and fired it up.

And we drove it across the United States.

And it was a hell of an adventure.

Emmy Hall was with us at the time.

And we, I mean, it was really fun, but it was also scary and sketchy all at the same time.

All of us put a lot of miles in with that car and all of us drove that Ford Raptor quite a bit.

And that's including Roman.

And look, you know, I make fun of him a lot, but Roman is a really hard working guy.

And he takes certain things very seriously.

Gotta have meals.

Gotta sit down and have those meals.

Gotta have your moments where you, you know, he's professional, right?

But there was nothing quite as amusing as finding out that his shoes got stolen in the middle of the desert.

I don't remember the name of the actual area we are in,

but it was some random desert hotel in the middle of BF Egypt.

And we left realizing he left his shoes behind.

We weren't gone for more than a few minutes and those shoes were gone.

They had no idea what we were talking about.

And apparently those were pretty expensive shoes.

Roman was really, really angry, which made the rest of the trip so much fun.

But it was just a memory that sticks in my head because, you know, he just, everything was like, you know,

I want this to work and work, work, work.

And then all of a sudden something really crazy goes on.

And then, you know, grumpily while you were chewing on a burger a thousand miles away.

Shoes are still there.

You had to be there for it.

But it was a really, it was a fond memory too,

because that trip culminated in us getting to Pebble Beach and having this really cool car that was supposed to be in this special class.

And they closed the gates on us and we had to actually go to Legends of the Autobahn in order to show that car.

So that was really fun.

And final one is with the rest of the crew, you know, Case and, you know, of course, Tommy.

And they're, they're fun guys to work with.

I get a real kick out of both Tommy and Case because I knew Tommy since he was 12.

And he is, he's truly a car guy, like a car nerd freak.

And so I've always had a fun time, you know, teasing him about puberty and whatnot.

But with Case, Case has always been like an action hero who happens to work for us.

And I'm thrilled about that.

And when I grow up, I want to be Case as well.

We all do a TFO.

So those are all the guys I've worked with at TFL Truck.

300 episodes.

It's incredible.

I'm absolutely over the moon that we're doing it.

We're still rocking it.

I'm still part of the team, even though I'm being a lazy so-and-so over here in California.

And I hope to do a lot more in the future.

So thank you guys.

I'll see you later.

Ep. 300: Truck Sales Are On FIRE Except For These Two Full-Size Trucks!

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